Hi Linda,
Could you help me with this ruling that happened to my friend?
On a par 3 a player plays her ball into a dry water hazard.
The player finds what she thinks is her ball.
She takes a few practice swings in the hazard touching some long grass and in the process she moves the ball.
She lifts the ball and replaces it and plays it on to the green.
On the green she realizes this is not her ball.
She goes back to the hazard and finds her original ball and plays it on to the green and has 2 putts. What is her score?
Thanks
Lulu
Dear Lulu,
The player’s score is 6:
• Tee shot – stroke #1.
• No penalty for touching the long grass with practice swings in the hazard, as long as she did not touch the ground and did not improve her lie or the area of her intended swing.
• No penalty for moving a ball in the hazard that was not her ball in play (Rule 18-2).
• Strokes made while playing the wrong ball do not count, so the shot she played to the green with the wrong ball is not added to her score.
• The penalty for playing a wrong ball is two strokes – stroke total is now 3.
• Return to the hazard and play original ball onto the green – stroke #4.
• Add two putts, for a total of 6 strokes.
In match play, the player would have simply lost the hole.
The score would be different if the player had touched the ground in the hazard with one of her practice swings. That violation would result in an additional two-stroke penalty [Rule 13-4b], giving her a score of 8 on the hole.
Linda
Copyright © 2012 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
